This invention relates to a method and apparatus to dry quench coke, and more particularly to continuously dry quenching coke in a vertical chamber with an inert gas circulated through the coke and a heat exchanger wherein the vertical chamber comprises a top prechamber below a charging opening therein and a quenching chamber below the prechamber having a bottom gas entry and a bottom coke discharge with an inert gas exit between the prechamber and the quenching chamber.
Recently, dry-quenching facilities for coke of the foregoing general type are sometimes preferred to the known forms of wet-coke quenching systems not only for economic reasons but also because dry quenching of coke causes less environmental pollution than wet quenching. The hot coke must be conveyed from the coke oven chambers in closed vessels to insure maximum suppression of dust. The coke is thereafter discharged from the closed vessels through some form of lock system into the vertical chamber where the coke is cooled with circulating inert gas.
In the event the prechamber for such a dry-coke quenching facility is large enough to contain unquenched coke from a number of coke oven chambers above the central gas exit between the prechamber and the quenching chamber, the temperature of the hot inert gas supplied to the heat exchanger remains constant during conditions of undisturbed or continuous operation. In other words, when there is a uniform coke discharge and in the absence of major disturbances to the charging of burning or hot coke to a dry-quenching facility, the inert gas can be used in a satisfactory manner to heat a steam boiler. Satisfactory operation can be maintained in the event of faults or delays occurring to the charging of hot coke into the dry cooler at least until the surface of the body of coke in the prechamber above the gas exit has descended to a point where this coke surface is close to the latter gas exit. However, in coking plants where dry cooling of this type is usually carried out, other disturbances are likely, more particularly interruptions of varying lengths to the discharge of coke from the quenching facility.